Karst spring
| Location: | From Tallahassee south on South Adams, becomes Crawfordville Highway (US 319 South), turn left on State Road 61, turn left on State Road 267, park entrance to the right. (30°14'7.64"N, 84°18'9.80"W) |
| Open: | |
| Fee: | |
| Classification: |
Karst spring
|
| Dimension: | L=45,000m. |
| Bibliography: | |
| Address: | Wakulla Springs State Park, 550 Wakulla Park Drive, Wakulla Springs, FL 32327-0390, Tel: +1-840-224-5950. |
| Last update: | $Date: 2008/10/09 18:40:25 $ |
| 20-MAY-2006 | new cave diving record: 6,096m. | |
| JUL-2007 | divers Casey McKinlay and Jarrod Jablonski discover connection to Leon Sinks. |
Wakulla Spring is located south of Tallahassee in the panhandle. This is the northwestern branch of Florida, which looks like a pan handle on the map. It is also the part of Florida with the highest elevation, limestone underground and abundant rainfall. The whole area is intensively karstified, which very easy visible on a good map: there are thousands of dolines, many of them filed with ground water and thus shown as small circular ponds. This ponds are generally called cenote, a term which originates from Mexico.
The spring of the Wakulla river, which flows only 14km to the sea, the Gulf of Mexico, is one of the largest karst spring on Earth. It also holds the world record of the longest cave dive of the World. After an intensive research by a group of cave divers the known length of the underwater spring was extended by 650m. To reach the farthest known point of the cave a dive of 6,096m is necessary. This is the longest known underground dive on Earth.
The newest exploration happened in JUL-2007. The two cave divers Casey McKinlay and Jarrod Jablonski discoverd the connection between Wakulla Springs to Leon Sinks. As a result the new Wakulla Springs cave system has now a total length of 45km. This makes it the longest underwater cave in North America. The divers are from Woodville Karst Plain Project, which explores the underwater caves of the 1160km² Woodville Karst Plain.
| Main Index | USA | Florida |
| Last updated Terms of Use, © Jochen Duckeck. |
 |
Clickable Maps Alphabetical Index |
|
Contact showcaves.com: |
|
General Information |